Dear Sonja,
Whether you get your news from the Internet, TV, or
print, chances are you'll sometimes see one particular
story everywhere at once. The sense of being
bombarded with findings from a single infertility study
can make the news seem very important, a must-
know tidbit, and never-before-seen.
Is that really the case?
How "News" is Made
By now, there's a whole generation of people who
grew up using the latest technology -- the Internet, and
specifically, Web 2.0 features -- for getting their news.
Many of them are at an age where they want to build
their family, and many are finding they need fertility
assistance.
So these media-savvy hopeful parents-to-be use
everything available to scour for the latest information.
It's not really that hard now, thanks to the use of things
like e-newsletters, blogs, and online social networks.
Large private clinics were first in getting the word out
to searching health care consumers, and finally, the
medical schools got on board. There are also
separate, unaffiliated organizations that do a great job
of disseminating data from professional medical
journals.
The pipeline of information often works this way:
A clinic conducts a study, comes up with results and
conclusions, and then gets the word out. Their study's
results are sometimes published in a professional
journal, which often means that news-watchers will
see blips, blurbs, and fuller stories coming out from
more than one source -- the clinic itself, the journal
that published the study, pharmaceutical makers,
patient advocate organizations, and medical
educational societies.
The average person can feel inundated by news
about one study. And the more you see a story appear
in different news outlets, the more important it seems.
The "Latest" Hot Item
A large study of more than 6,000 patients looked at
using live birth-rates to measure IVF success. The
study results are very positive toward IVF in general
and confirm that the technique is not good enough
to "reverse" age-related infertility statistics.
There's not much truly new about these results, except
for the combination of study size with the use of live-
birth rates as a measure, rather than using pregnancy
as a marker of IVF success. Even so, that doesn't
make it "a first"; but related headlines would leave the
average reader to think this was "breaking" news.
The numbers from this study back up what we have
already been telling patients. IVF works very well, and
the younger the woman is, the better it works.
What the News Means For You
The bottom line: good medicine is practiced one
patient at a time. What works for this body may not
work for the next. While it is helpful to have a handle
on the latest results, trying to keep up with it can be a
real time-killer -- and may have nothing to do with your
personal fertility treatment success.
If you're the newshound type, be sure to finely tune
your hunting skills. Learn to get beyond the headlines -
- their primary objective is to win the first quick glance
from you. Get to the names in the news article.
Research who and what they are, and keep in mind
what they have to gain or lose from what's being
published. That's not always a negative. Just like any
other market, competition has spurred the
development of fertility treatment for the direct benefit
of patients who want to have babies. Remember that
seeing stories about a particular study over and over
again in several different media outlets might be more
about how well-greased their communication system
is and not entirely about the importance of the news
itself.
I welcome your questions about news you read or
hear about -- and I'll be sure to let you know how the
topic relates to your specific fertility situation.
Sincerely,
Sonja B. Kristiansen, MD